Dogtooth

When it comes to movies, disturbing ones have never been my thing. In a genre of their own, most of these "shock" movies try to be more disturbing than the last, forgetting about simple cinematic needs, like plot and dialogue. What intrigued me about Dogtooth, was that it was apparently a very good movie, that so happened to be disturbing, so i decided to give it a watch.

Having no background information on the movie, I quickly realized that Dogtooth was a foreign film, with english subtitles. While I don't mind reading subtitles, this may be off putting for some viewers. Not as off putting as the movie itself.

The movie starts off with a very awkward sex scene. Not a dramatized, strategically shot hollywood sex scene, but a vey realistic (may actually be real) sex scene. The movie then proceeds to get weirder and weirder.  Near the beginning, I was wondering if I would be able to make it through this movie.

 We find out that the movie is centered around a very different family. The parents keep their 3 children (2 girls, 1 boy) completely isolated from the outside world. They are kept in a combine with no outsiders allowed, and no signs of the outside world. While this may sound like a pretty overdone premise, no film interpreted this isolation the way that Dogtooth has done. Dogtooth looked at the sacrifice that the parents go through in order to keep their children away from the outside world, and how the children do not behave in any socially normal ways.

Dogtooth is gripping. There are scenes that will make you cringe, laugh, or even be shaken by the families behaviour, but these scenes will keep you thinking. I you can overcome the disturbing subject matter, then there is quite a good movie lying underneath

4/5